The hippies were long gone with no political afterlife, feminists failed to pass even a toothless Equal Rights Amendment and Christian conservatives were a fringe movement until a disputed 2000 election put into the White House a reformed drunk who had turned to religiosity in midlife.

“At this stage, there’s cleavage in every part of the government. It can be seen in the Intelligence Ministry between those who say that [presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi’s] green movement was part of a velvet revolution and a plot to overthrow the regime, and those who argue that this is ridiculous.” [Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.]

The election of a president who prides himself on reaching across political divides has resulted in the irony of more partisanship than ever as remnants of the Republican party that rode roughshod over opposition in the Bush years are reduced to mouthing the slogans that brought them to power back then. [Source: Connecting.the.Dots]

“CAIRO — The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.
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“I don’t ever remember in the 20 years of Khamenei’s rule where he was clearly and categorically on one side and so many clergy were on the other side,” Mr. Milani said. “This might embolden other clergy to come forward.”

Iranian Details Alleged FraudMousavi Is Also Accused of Treason
In a 24-page document posted on his Web site, Mousavi’s special committee studying election fraud accused influential Ahmadinejad supporters of handing out cash bonuses and food, increasing wages, printing millions of extra ballots and other acts in the run-up to the vote. [Source: Washington Post]

Vladimir Putin Wages a Cold War With a Heating Fuel – Mr. Putin’s regime plainly intends to use Europe’s dependence on Russian energy to advance an imperialist and anti-Western geopolitical agenda. The only rational response is a dramatic acceleration of the European Union’s search for alternative sources of energy — and greater support for those countries that Russia seeks to subjugate.